Ti me-li m it ticket



(No Model.) 'J. H. STEDMAN.

TIME LIMIT TICKET.

No. 481,210. Patented Aug. 23, 1892.

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Nrrn TATES ATENT Fries.

JOHN H. STEDMAN, OF ROCHESTER, NElV YORK.

TIME-LIMIT TICKET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 481,210, dated August 23, 1892.

Application filed July 9, 1891.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, JOHN H. STEDMAN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of Rochester, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Time-Limit Tickets, of which the following is a specification, reference being bad to the accompanying drawing, which represents a face view of one of my tickets.

Myinvention relates to the improvements in time-1i mit tickets herein after described and claimed, and the nature and object thereof are hereinafter set forth. ticularly of use as a transfer-ticket on streetrailway lines in cities, and the following desoription is based upon such use.

The ticket, as shown in the drawing, has upon its face a central column of numbers from l to 12. On either side of each of these numbers is aserios of figures from to 5,arrangedinhorizontalcolumns. Theforegoing constitutes what may be called the central table. Along the upper margin of the ticket is a series of numbers from 1 to 12. Along the side margins is a series of numbers running from 1 to 31. Along the lower margin are the letters N, 8., E, and WV. The central column of figures indicates the hours of the day from one to twelve, the figures on either side of each of the numbersin the central column indicate periods of time into which the hour is divided, the series of horizontal columns on the left of the central column indicate parts of the morning hours, and those on the right indicate parts of the afternoon hours. The numbers from 1 to 12 on the upper margin of the ticket indicate the months of the year, the numbers from 1 to 31 indicate the days of the month, the letters N., 8., E, and W. indicate the points of the compass, and thus the lines of railway from which passengers are to be transferred or to which they may be transferred, as hereinafter described.

One object of this ticket is to save the time and trouble of making several punch marks in the same by the conductor of the railwaycar, as it has been found important to reduce the actions of the conductor to as few as possible in order to avoid mistakes and to accommodate large number of passengers.

This device is pars;

Serial No. 39 8,922. (No model.)

In order to obviate the necessity of the conductor punching the month or day of the month, the following method may be adopted: As above stated, the numbers indicating the months and the days are printed in the margins of the tickets, which are cut of uniform size. They are then set evenly and are passed into and through a suitable channel on the table of a circular sawing machine. The saw is set to out only so high above the surface of the table as to enter into the edges of the ticket far enough to cut out one number. If, for instance, the number 6 of the'column representing the months is sawed out, thus indicating that the ticket is good for the month of June, the channel in which the tickets slide must be set to bringthe number (i to the edge of the saw. Any number of tickets may thus be accurately and quickly marked as to the month, and the same method may be adopted in order to mark as to the day of the month. It is not necessary to throw away these tickets after one such sawing' If the marking begin by sawing out the figure l of the column indicating the months and the figure 1 0f the column indicating the days of the month, that will indicate that the ticket is good on the first day of January. On the next day the tickets, which have not been used on that day, may be returned to the main office of the railway company and the figure 2 may be removed from the column indicating the days of the month, and so on until the whole margin of the ticket is used. The figures must be so arranged in the margin that any figure may be sawed out without any other figure being touched by the saw cut or slot running in from the edge of the ticket. The single lines of marginal numbers shown in the drawing are a convenient arrangement for this purpose.

The most common difficulty in the use of transfer-tickets for street-car lines in cities has been that the passenger to whom the transfer-ticket was delivered would keep it and use it at his own convenience for an independent fare. My invention prevents this difficulty by limiting the ticket to a fixed short period of timee. g., ten minutesor to a multiple of the time fixed, although the ticket may be arranged for any other period of time that may be considered suitable. If

a passenger at twelve oclock and ten minutes in the afternoon wishes to be transferred to another line, the conductor punches the 2 in the horizontal column on the right of the figure 12, which indicates that the ticket is good until twelve oclock and twenty minutes in the afternoon. It the 3 in the column on the left of the number 10 should be punched, it would indicate that the ticket was to be good until ten oclock and thirty minutes.

The letters in the margin of theticket may indicate one of two things, as above suggested-either the railway-line to which or the line from which the transfer is made.

It is found to be necessary to arrange transfer-tickets so that the passenger shall not pay his fare, receive a transfer, and immediately take passage back upon the road on which he came, thus obtaining the round-trip ,ride upon one fare. My ticket may be punched in one of two Ways to preventthis practice. If the passenger is on a car traveling east, the conductor maypunch the W, and this may indicate that the passenger may transfer to any line except a line running west, his return-line; or if the passenger wishes to be transferred to a line running in any of the four directions indicated by the letters that letter may be punched. In other Words, if a passenger wishes to take a .line going north the letter N should be punched out, and the ticket would then be good only on a line going north. Other obvious methods of using these letters will occur.

The numbers 1 to 12, indicating the months, and the numbers l to 31, ind icating the days of the month, may be omitted from the ticket, if desired, since the effect of the use of these numbers can be obtained by theissue of tickets of separate tints or colors forseparate days. That a passenger, receiving a ticket of a particulartint or color, punch ed for a particular short period in a day,would keep that ticket Watching until the time for its use should return again, would be very unlikely, because diificult. The labor of sawing or cutting out the numbers indicating the month and day of the month is obviated by this plan, and the size and cost of the ticket is reduced by the amount of card-board thus saved.

Perhaps the most important feature of my invention is the central table containing the numbers indicating the hour of the day and the numbers indicating the periods of time into which those hours are divided. This table may be used with a horizontal column of figures, only on one side of the numbers indicating the hours of the day, and the ticket could thereby be reduced in size. The conductor may then be provided with a punch indicating the afternoon and another punch indicating the forenoon of the day, and these could be used in connection with this form of ticket. If the 3 opposite the 10 were punched with an afternoon punch,this would indicate that the ticket was good till half-past ten at night, and for the morning the morning punch would be used.

As may be convenient other characters than the figures above described may be used to indicate the months, days, hours, or parts of hours and the points of transfer.

Instead of printed characters, sections of the ticket may be set apart and arranged to indicate the matters above described, but such sections are herein denominated characters.

What I claim is- 1. In a time-limit ticket, a column of figures or characters denoting the hours of the day and figures or characters denoting fractional parts of the hours, said last-named figures or characters being arranged in lines or rows transverse to the column and opposite the figures or characters therein, substantially as described.

2. In a time-limit ticket, a central column of figures denoting the hours of the day and figures denoting fractional parts of the hours, arranged in lines or rows transverse to the column, and on each side thereof opposite the figures or characters denotingthe hours, substantially as described.

In a time-limit ticket, a column of figures or characters indicating the hours of the day and transverse lines of figures or characters denoting fractional parts of said hours, arranged on each side of the column opposite to the figures or characters therein, those on one side of said column denoting fractions of the hours of a. m. and those on the opposite side fractions of the hours of p. m., substantially described.

JOHN H. STEDMAN.

Witnesses:

CHARLES M. WILLmiIs, H. L. Osooon. 

